


Voices from Shiganshina

by bombed_reverie



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Ereri Minibang 2k19, M/M, Mild Gore, Slight description of radiation poisoning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 08:54:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19438096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bombed_reverie/pseuds/bombed_reverie
Summary: Shiganshina.Home of the Shiganshina Power Plant that exploded due to a safety test gone wrong.Levi and Hanji head to interview survivors of the accident and find themselves digging deeper into the causes of the accident and learning that not everything in the paper is true.





	Voices from Shiganshina

**Author's Note:**

> Roughly based on 'Voices from Chernobyl' by Svetlana Alexievich and the Chernobyl disaster (if you haven't read it, it's well written and I highly recommend it).
> 
> Written for EreriEvents2k19 Minibang. This is multichaptered and I will post each chapter every other day (or so...)
> 
> Art is by zoey-angel.tumblr.com, who is fantastic and amazing. Thank you for being my partner!

Levi stands next to Hanji as they communicate with one of the Marian police officers on the border of Maria and Shiganshina, trying to figure out the best way to enter the exclusion zone for the Shiganshina Power Plant. He can barely make out a few of the words the official is saying, but he can tell that they won’t be allowed in without an official tour guide because of how dangerous the grounds still are within the Zone.

Levi and Hanji were here to get first hand accounts of those who lived near the Plant when the disaster happened and to see if there were people living on the outskirts of the Zone.

The Shiganshina Power Plant exploded almost fifteen years prior, having failed a routine safety test, causing the city of Shiganshina to become a desolate wasteland void of human life. The only people allowed within the perimeter of the Zone were the liquidators, scientists, and tour groups that were only permitted to stay within the Zone for a few hours at a time to lessen the exposure to high levels of radiation.

They had gone through almost all the accounts of the disaster when it had happened, combing through newspapers, videos, and books, trying to find something different within the pages, but were sadly disappointed when it was the same information, just reworded into frightening propaganda. They found little first hand accounts of the poor souls who had to deal with the fallout in a different way, leaving their entire lives behind because it was unsafe to continue living there.

They had found a few people willing to give their testimony to them to be published for the world to see, but these were people who had come in from the outside to help clean the debris and stop the radiation from contaminating the earth further. They were the people who were contracted to come in and help create a dome for the fallen reactor to help stop the spread of the radiation through the air.

To put it simply, they weren’t the exact stories Levi and Hanji were looking for.

Levi glances at his phone, checking the time and swiping away a notification from Erwin for an update on whether or not they were able to get into the Zone without any problems, and hears Hanji sigh behind him. He turns, glancing at them indifferently as they leave the official and walk over to him.

“We have to either use a guide or we don’t go in at all,” Hanji says.

“How close to the edge can we get?”

“There’s a fence that surrounds the perimeter of the Zone and that’s as far as we can get. There’s only one entrance to get into the Zone, which obviously is heavily guarded, but apparently, they patrol the fences throughout the day to make sure there aren’t any holes or breaches in the fence.”

Levi sighs. “I’m not paying for some shitty guided tour.”

“They gave me one that’s apparently the more respected of the tours,” Hanji states. “It’s not that expensive.”

“I’m not paying to get into the Zone.”

“Erwin will cover it.”

Levi sighs and says, “Fine. When is the tour?”

“I have to get Erwin to pay for it but probably tomorrow or Friday.”

“Did he give any names on who we can speak to around here that were here when it happened?” Levi asks.

Hanji’s eyes go wide. “Fuck, I forgot to ask!”

They take off, running towards the official again, and Levi takes this moment to walk towards the fence and walk alongside of it. He looks through the fence, stares at the abandoned buildings, and tries to imagine this as a bustling city with life and not a devastated town. He knows that no one would willingly be in this part, since they typically drive through the entrance and don’t stop until they get to the decommissioned reactor. Not even the tour groups stop this close to the edge of the Zone.

Levi tugs his sweater closer to his body as he continues down the pathway, trying to put himself in the survivors’ spots, trying to imagine what he would do if he had to just up and leave everything behind, when he spots movement in one of the abandoned buildings not too far from the edge. He stops, leaning against the fence as much as he can, to try and figure out what he just saw. It can’t be a human because that would be suicidal to expose oneself, even this far from the actual plant itself.

He shuffles down the way, hoping Hanji doesn’t come back in case it is a person and they scare them off with their obnoxious self. He keeps staring at the same spot, thinking that the object will reappear when he hears shuffling on the other side of the fence. He sees a tall young man poke his head from behind a broken window inside the building, eyes bright green as they lock with his own eyes. The man ducks seconds later and he goes to yell at the kid when Hanji yanks him back towards the entrance.

“Let’s go before they arrest you,” they say softly.

“I’m not in the fence.”

“You’re going closer to a spot of intense radiation and they’d arrest you just to decontaminate you,” Hanji threatens. “This is why I told you to bring the dosimeter with you.”

Levi rolls his eyes but goes without a fight. As Hanji turns around to pull him, he glances back at the building to see the young man poke his head back up through the window, eyes meeting his, and Levi is determined to find out who this kid is and why he’s within the Zone.

\---

Levi takes his laptop into the cafeteria of the hotel Erwin’s booked for them, wanting to get away from Hanji and do some research without the incessant questions he knows they’ll ask. He tries to find information on people living within the Zone, but comes up with nothing. Each article explicitly states that no one is allowed to live within the Zone and if they are caught, they will spend a good amount of time in jail. He knows that there are people who live within a foot of the border fence, people who lived in the Zone when the disaster happened and refused to be relocated any further.

He finds a table far from anyone else, not wanting to disturb the workers who lived here while they worked at the Plant for the short period they were allowed. He sees a combination of both young and older workers, men and women, and wonders if he can get Hanji to sit with a group and find out more about the clean up process and if any of them were here when it originally happened.

Once settled, he begins his search by deciding to find out if any of the original scientists are still alive. He knows that the first casualty was Keith Shadis due to the collapse of the building, but as he’s searching through information regarding Keith, he comes across another name that hasn’t come up in any of his previous searches, despite the article saying he was there the night the reactor fell.

Grisha Jaeger.

Levi writes the name down in his notebook with a question mark next to it and shoots Hanji a text, asking if they’ve come across his name in any of their searches. If he was an integral part of the Shiganshina Power Plant team, then why hasn’t he been mentioned in anything other than this specific article? He types in Grisha’s name, hoping there will be articles, but instead it is just results on him as a nuclear scientist and resident doctor of the town.

Each one gives the same background, same boring information: he was born in Shiganshina, studied nuclear physics and medicine, married a local bartender named Carla, had a son they named Eren, worked for both the Shiganshina Power Plant and the local hospital, and he was well liked. Each article written in past tense, despite nothing being concrete that he passed away in the disaster.

He comes across a picture of Keith Shadis and another man, whom he assumes is Grisha, in front of the newly built plant, smiling and shaking hands with one another. He sees another picture in the same sequence of Grisha shaking hands with the Plant’s manager, Eren Kruger, and Levi makes a note about how it was coincidental that Grisha named his son after the manager of the Plant.

He continues through the first few pages of his search when Hanji responds, telling him they’ll meet him at his table to discuss because they don’t recall seeing his name anywhere either. He stops his search and sends a text to Erwin to see if Erwin’s contacts can dig up some useful information regarding Grisha’s whereabouts.

Erwin responds quickly with a single word, ‘e-mail,’ and Levi goes to his email and sees a couple links from Erwin. He clicks the first one and it comes up to a Google Doc with the title ‘Grisha Jaeger Sightings.’ He shakes his head and wonders why Erwin’s contacts have this, but as he skims through the information, it seems that Grisha hasn’t been seen since the morning after the Power Plant accident. There are potential sightings of the man, but nothing’s been confirmed. 

He then notices that there is a section on Grisha’s son, Eren, with his last known sighting to be the morning after as well. He frowns, wondering why both would disappear the morning of.

He also notices that it lists two names next to Eren’s, Armin and Mikasa, with an address not too far from the hotel and a recent date. He copies Armin’s name and puts it into the search bar, but comes up with nothing. No social media, nothing. He does the same for Mikasa’s name and finds one article about how she was a victim of her family being murdered before getting adopted by the Jaegers when she was six, one year before the accident, which means she is twenty-two now. It also shows a picture of her and who he assumes is Eren, also age six, standing next to Grisha and Carla, Eren’s mother. He notices how Eren is a spitting image of the woman, right down to the bright eyes that he inherited.

Levi’s pulled from his current train of thought when he hears the chair being pulled out and Hanji grunting as they sit across from him.

“Any luck on Grisha?”

“I had Erwin get in contact with someone to send me some information,” Levi says, “but it’s nothing more than where Grisha could have been seen last. But there are two names on here that live nearby and it’s a recent update, so I think we should see if they can tell us more about Grisha and his disappearance.”

Hanji grins widely, a high pitched squeal threatening to escape from their mouth at this new information. “We can go tomorrow since Erwin’s got us on the tour for Friday. You think they’ll talk to us?”

“They were young when it happened,” Levi says. “It says Mikasa was about six when she was adopted by the Jaegers, so she would have been here when the accident occurred. It says she lives in a small house near here with a childhood friend named Armin, but that’s all the information about him I can find.”

“What about the other links Erwin sent?”

“I haven’t gotten that far,” Levi says. “I’m just surprised that we haven’t come across Grisha’s name in any of our research. None. Not for someone who apparently helped designed the reactors and was someone who was a doctor in the town. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Hanji taps their chin. “Maybe they tried to cover it up? Maybe it wasn’t really an accident? Who knows why they would try to erase someone from the narrative.”

“I just hope these two brats can shed some light.”

“If they’re willing to talk.”

\---

Levi gets up before Hanji, ready to start their day of research. He’s pretty sure these two young adults are not going to be too happy to rehash the incident but he's still going to try. He needs to get their version of the accident.

Hanji finally comes down to the car and Levi all but shoves them into the car. He has the address already plugged into the GPS and they head off.

The drive is quiet, not many other vehicles coming or going from either direction, and Levi makes a mental note to ask about why no one lives near the edge of the zone, even though it's considered safe now.

He flexes his hands on the steering wheel as Hanji begins to drone on about their questions and their theories as to why Mikasa and Armin are still here. Levi doesn't even try to block it out, knowing their questions were valid and important to their research.

"Levi, what if they don't remember anything?"

"Then they don't remember and we move on to the next survivor," Levi says.

Hanji doesn't say anything more and the car falls into an unnatural silence. Levi isn't used to Hanji not speaking. He wonders if they've gotten radiation poisoning already and it's affecting their speech.

The GPS announces they've arrived at their destination moments later and Levi takes in the small house in front of them. It didn't look big enough to house one person, let alone two people, comfortably. The outside was run down, nature trying to take it back, and the door was barely secured enough to be considered safe. Levi wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue up to the door with how dirty it was.

Hanji didn’t care about what it looked like. They snapped photos of the outside before the makeshift door squeaked open and a young woman, who looked about twenty one, walked outside, ready to fight both Hanji and Levi. Following the young woman was a young man with blonde hair and bright blue eyes, trying to stop the woman from attacking them.

“Mikasa, stop!”

“Get off my property,” she says, stopping short of the two, eyes narrowing.

“We just wanted to ask some questions regarding the Shiganshina Power -” Hanji begins before the woman - Mikasa - cuts them off.

“No.”

“We won’t be too long,” Hanji says, trying to appeal to her. “Just a few questions and we’ll be out of your hair.”

“I don’t care. I want you to leave.”

“Look, brat,” Levi begins, “we want to hear from people who experienced the accident first hand for a book we’re doing and -”

“I don’t care.”

Levi sighs, trying to reign in his irritation at her cutting him off. “Then maybe you can tell me if Eren Jaeger, son of Grisha Jaeger, is still within the exclusion zone.”

Levi watches their faces for any sign that they’ll give some sort of information on Eren, some sign that he’s still alive and is the person he saw within the zone. But neither brat gives any sort of indication.

“Eren’s dead.”

Armin nods and Levi thinks he sees a small twitch near his left eye as he says, “He died a few months after the accident. He and his father both died of radiation poisoning.”

“Then why hasn’t any of the news articles that came out after the accident come out and declared both Grisha and Eren dead?” Levi asks.

Armin glances at Mikasa as she shrugs. “I can’t tell you, but I can tell you that my brother is dead and you need to get off my property.”

“Why stay near the Zone if there’s no one keeping you here?” Levi asks, trying to get either of them to reveal something, anything. 

“We have nowhere else to go,” Armin whispers.

Levi goes to ask another question, but Hanji stops him, placing their hand on his arm. “I think we’ve done enough prodding. If you decide to change your mind and talk to us for our research, here’s my number. We’re staying at the Shiganshina Hotel right near the entrance to the Zone.”

Armin takes their business card, eyeing it over, as Mikasa all but drags him back into their home. Levi yanks his arm out of Hanji’s grasp and stalks towards the car. They know something they’re not letting on and he’s pretty sure he would have gotten it out of them with a few more questions. That or some well placed threats.

Hanji joins him back in the car and sighs. “Something has them scared.”

Levi turns the car on, backing out of the makeshift driveway, and heads back to the hotel, mulling over what Hanji just said. They’re either scared of someone or they’re protecting Eren from something.

“I wonder what they’re hiding,” Levi says. “Can you do some digging tonight?”

Hanji nods. “I’ll see what I can find.”

\---

Levi tries going back to Mikasa and Armin’s the next day while Hanji spends their time doing research. Armin answers the door and looks like he’s about to give him something, but Mikasa surges forward and slams the door in his face. He goes to knock again when the door opens quickly, but promptly shuts before he can open his mouth.

He goes back to the car and drives off, deciding to come back tomorrow in hopes that Mikasa isn’t there. Armin seems like he wants to talk about something, but Mikasa is the one holding him back. When he gets back to the hotel, he finds Hanji sitting in a booth table in the banquet hall, papers strewn out everywhere, pen in their mouth as they stare intently at the computer in front of them. 

They only look up when he sits across from them.

“How’d it go?” they ask, not looking at him.

Levi frowns as he takes a paper from underneath him and tosses it at Hanji. “Not as well as I had hoped.”

“They’re not going to talk to us, Levi,” Hanji says around the pen. “They don’t have any reason to trust us. We’re outsiders looking for someone who should be dead. Hell, we don’t even have proof that this Eren kid is alive.”

He sighs, crossing his arms over his chest, and says, “Any luck on your end?”

Hanji lights up, the pen falling from their mouth as they begin to gather the loose paper scattered across the table. “Of course! Look at who you’re talking to, shortstack!”

Levi rolls his eyes as they continue, “Grisha Jaeger is a fucked up individual.”

“Why?”

“It’s rumored that he was injecting his family with radiation in hopes that enough would make them immune to it in case anyone ever decided to bomb the shit out Shiganshina. His wife, Carla, died of radiation poisoning and his son was showing early symptoms when the accident happened.”

“His wife died in the accident?”

“Oh no! She died years before,” Hanji explains. “Her death certificate says brain aneurysm, but there was talk about it being radiation poisoning. No one but Grisha and the doctor saw the body when she died so there isn’t any other witnesses to the state of her body.”

They hand Levi an article and says, “They apparently were doing research on how high levels of radiation can affect the body to see if they can combat the effects of radiation and he must have used Carla as a guinea pig long before Eren was born. According to this, they wanted to plan for the effects of nuclear war with these experiments. They must have continued the experiments on Eren once he was born to see how it affected children.”

Levi glances over at the article, frowning, and feeling disgusted at how scientists could inflict this kind of torture on someone with not knowing the effects. 

“One theory also says that Carla had been injected with plutonium or something along those lines just before she died,” Hanji states, “but Eren wasn’t so lucky. Grisha continued to inject him with small amounts and then left Eren outside when the reactor exploded.”

“He what?” Levi says, angrily.

“It’s not been proven, but it’s been rumored that Eren was outside the plant when it exploded,” Hanji explains. “He was far enough to be safe from the initial blast, but apparently, Grisha wanted to see if Eren would have survived a large dose of radiation from the source. If he did, he would have been an enigma to the scientists. If he didn’t, well, he would no longer be suffering.”

Levi sighs loudly, leaning back in the booth, dropping his head on the headrest. “What kind of crazy shit would torture their own family?”

“Someone who is thinking of the greater good?”

“Fuck the greater good.”

“But there is good news. You might have seen him.”

“Might. Not conclusive,” Levi retorts. “What else did you find?”

“The company Grisha was working for destroyed a lot of information regarding their work with radiation, which is why everyone is using the word ‘rumor’ when it comes to the human experiments,” Hanji says. “There’s nothing concrete, no proof. Just rumors.”

Levi sighs. This wasn’t what he intended when he started doing research for ‘Voices from Shiganshina.’ He wanted life stories, not some sort of cover up regarding human experimentation. He wonders if the people of Shiganshina knew of what the Plant was really doing. Were they aware? Were they even using these people as test subjects or just the Jaeger family? Did Grisha feel inclined to keep this secret from the other scientists of the Plant and that’s why they’re looking for Eren? Did they find out what was going on?

“We need to either get Mikasa and Armin to talk or find Eren,” Hanji says.

“This sounds like something we should stay away from,” Levi says. “We need to go back to the foundations of our research. We want stories, not some sort of wild goose hunt.”

Hanji frowns, taking their glasses off and rubbing their eyes in frustration. “Levi, you can’t tell me that this isn’t just as important as the survivors’ stories. These people are still working in the Plant. They could still be using people as test subjects. It could be why they’re hellbent on searching for Eren, especially if they have an idea that he’s still alive.”

“Hanji -”

“Think about what that means, Levi, from a scientist point of view! You shove radiation into one body, high levels that are enough to kill someone within a few hours, only to find out they survived not only the injections, but the blast itself! What if the accident was intentional? To see if Eren could survive even higher radiation levels? To see if their research was worth the trouble and the deaths of innocent lives?”

They sigh softly and add, “We have to do something. People need to know what’s going on.”

“Leave it Hanji,” Levi says. “It’s for your own good.”

“But-”

“No. Please, drop it,” Levi pleads, knowing that it’s going to fall on deaf ears because once Hanji is set on something, they won’t stop until everything is uncovered. “Who knows what these people can do? The ones looking for Eren if he’s still alive.”

Hanji just shrugs and starts piling their papers up into a messy pile, shoving them into their bag. “I’ll drop it, for now, but tomorrow we’re going back to Mikasa and Armin’s.”


End file.
